1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a housing for accommodating disc-shaped information carriers, for example CDs, with a central part comprising a support plate and two identical lid parts hinged to the central part, which lid parts are capable of having one retaining device each for the information carriers on the inside, while the central part is capable of having one such device on both sides.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a housing is known, for example, from EP-PS 0 114 631, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,888, issued Aug. 20, 1985. This known housing is a CD packaging for several CDs which has been standardized worldwide. A maximum of four CDs can be accommodated in such a known packaging. The lid parts here each have a retaining device on their inside for holding one CD each, while in addition the central part has a retaining device on either side for accommodating a further two CDs. In commercially available housings usual in practice, the retaining devices of the central part are centrally positioned on a support plate which is provided with a raised central support on either side and is curved and provided with raised reinforcement ribs in radial direction away from the central support, so that this support plate occupies comparatively much space perpendicular to its plane. The distance between the end faces of the retaining devices on either side of the support plate is so small that at most a thin text leaflet can be accommodated between the retaining devices. Such a housing, however, usually contains four CDs which are accompanied by a correspondingly thick text booklet. It has been impossible until now to accommodate such a booklet inside the housing for the reasons mentioned above, instead, this comparatively thick text booklet was offered together with the housing in a separate box, for example made of cardboard.